Planet Association of #Perungudi - community which strongly believes and doing their best to protect lake Perungudi from pollution. This is one of the few waterbodies inside chennai which is still got acceptable quality of water. Today paddling session showcased to the local community that water sports such as paddlboarding, kayaking can be used to protect and get more values from lake for workout, outdoor activity

First ever Standup Paddleboarding survey has been successfully attempted in North Palk Bay on 13th & 14th March 2017 by M.Kumaran (Kumaran Geopaddler).

With the support of OMCAR Foundation - a registered, non-governmental, non-profit organization which engages in a multitude of activities for the conservation of coastal and adjacent ecosystems of northern Palk Bay,India. Insitu conservation and Environmental Awareness are among the chief areas of concern for OMCAR Foundation. The marine and coastal ecology research programme strives to promote and enhance the conservation of mangrove and seagrass ecosystems in the region by a participatory approach involving local community. Through Environment Education Programmes in coastal schools, we aim to strengthen individual and team responsibility among school students in nature conservation.

My long time wish to explore the water bodies of Goan Western Ghats finally happened with the help of Nakul Dhawasker - My friend, Goan, Geologist and Offroad tour enthusiast.
Trip to the source area of River Mandovi - the , lifeline of Indian state #Goa. Its end of Feb 2017, morning in this part of india is misty and cold. Within 45 mins drive from central goa, we crossed single lane bridge over the river Mandovi and reached the foothills of #Westernghats. After crossing dense cashew vegetation, tiny hamlets, we entered the Mhadei Wildlife Sanctuary. With necessary permission from Wildlife Authoriites we done 12 kms of thrilling offroading into the core of wilife sanctuary. Around 10am, we reached pristine and perennial river pools of river #mandovi. This perennial waters are lifeline for wildlife including tigers, Leopards and several other wild species including Big Four Venonmous Indian snakes. Atleast 260 out of 330 recorded western ghats butterflles are found in this area. Soon this sanctuary will be declared as a Tiger reserve.

This is my another Near source to sea trip after Epic #gangesup Expedition. Water is crystal clear than ganges waters. Best season to visit is Post monsoon to Pre Summer.

Paddling for first time in this Global Biodiversity Hotspot is an Epic feeling. Thanks to Nakul Dhawasker and his Monster Thar

GangesSUP is a record breaking, world’s first descent of the entire length of the river Ganges by stand up paddleboard. An expedition for purpose, the vision and mission of this journey is to empower awareness and advocacy for cleaner water, via adventure.

On 3rd October 2016, the expedition kicked off on foot in Gaumukh, the 'visible' source of the Ganges at the altitude of 4100m in the Indian Himalayas. On 11th January 2017-101 days and 2977 kms later, the team of Shilpika Gautam and Kumaran Mahalingam paddled to the mouth of the Ganges at GangarSagar

The issue of water pollution is certainly not unique to the Ganges alone - in fact, as one of the greatest rivers in the world which supports well over 500 million people, the Ganges symbolizes the scale and urgency with which we must all be engaged in saving our water bodies - be it ponds, canals, rivers or oceans.

By sharing raw, unbiased stories from our expedition be it photo, footage or writing , we endeavored to highlight the positive stories from this river-of-life, of the challenges that the least connected and underprivileged living along its banks face on a daily basis, and how public/private efforts are transforming their quality of life, one village at a time.

We are especially proud of our active partnership with WaterAid India - wateraidindia.in/get-involved/participate/poopfreeganga/ and our work on the conservation of the Ganga River Dolphins

A Chennai environmentalist, who uses paddling as a means to sensitise about conservation of water bodies, has donned another successful tag by paddling on a lake near the world’s third highest motorable pass last week.

The three-time Limca book recorder is now the first person in the world to have paddled on Tsoltak Lake, situated at an altitude of 16,618 feet.

M. Kumaran, a geologist and a paddler, had to battle acute mountain sickness to perform stand up paddling at a Himalayan lake, Tsoltak near Chang La pass.

He has thus surpassed a previous record attempt of paddling at Suraj Tal Lake, which is at the altitude of 16,000 feet. His plan to paddle at Pangong and Tsomoriri in Ladakh region faced many obstacles due to curfew in Srinagar.

“We could not follow the initial plan of flying to Srinagar due to curfew there. We took a road trip from Delhi to Leh via Manali by crossing world’s three highest motorable passes,” Kumaran said.

“Even though we took proper breaks, we suffered mild to moderate acute mountain sickness, feeling headache and shortness of breath,” he added.
The clear September weather and non-frozen waters of the crystal blue lake near Chang La pass facilitated Kumaran to paddle for 45 minutes.. It was risky as a fall in glacier water could result in hypothermia, a dangerous drop in body temperature.

“My previous paddling experiences on choppy sea waters at Chennai coast and on other water bodies helped me to paddle without a fall,” he said. Paddling in Himalayan lakes is often met with many challenges – both climatological and religious.

“Many high altitude lakes have a religious connection and do not allow human intervention. A few of the high altitude lakes are at Indo-China border, making it difficult to obtain permission,” he said.

M Kumaran, an eco conservationist and stand-up paddler from Chennai has added another feather to his cap after he paddled in Tsoltak Lake in Leh which is at a height of 16,618 feet from the sea level. But that was not all — he immediately followed it up with another paddling attempt in Nubra Valley, which is near to Khardung La Pass, one of the highest motorable roads in the world. Kumaran is already a three-time Limca Book of Records holder in stand-up paddling and he says that all his efforts are to promote the sport and also sensitise people about our water bodies.
Kumaran, who currently works in Gurgaon, started off from Delhi to Leh via Manali by road early this month. "The first challenge was to fight the altitude sickness leaving me with headache and shortness of breath. First, I got acclimatized to the conditions at Leh for a few days before I went on to do stand-up paddling in Tsoltak Lake. A few days later, I paddled for about 45 minutes and thus became the first person to paddle in Tsoltak Lake," says Kumaran, who is now in Chennai.
The successful attempt in Tsoltak Lake gave him confidence to try out paddling in Nubra Valley. It is where the Shyok River meets the Nubra River. He says, "From the valley, I paddled 5km downstream in Shyok River, which originates from the Rimo Glacier, one of the tongues of Siachen Glacier. From the origin, the river flows towards south east. But at one point it kind of takes a U-turn and flows to north west and goes to Pakistan."
The Shyok River is also called the river of death because of treacherous currents. "There were rapids and that was really challenging. This apart, the temperature of the water always remains very low as the river originates from a glacier. That keeps the water extremely cold and a fall in the water would result in hypothermia, a dangerous drop in body temperature. But my experience paddling in choppy sea waters helped me maintain balance and ensured that I didn't fall off the paddle board. This is again a first-time attempt by anyone in Shyok River. I have documented both the attempts and I will be soon applying for Limca Book of Records and Guinness World Records," says Kumaran.
So, what's next? "I am going for a continuous 75-day expedition from Devprayag to the mouth of Ganges. I will be paddling with an international team and the expedition will start on October 16. Of course, we're trying to create a record, but more than that we're looking to create awareness about the need to save Ganges from pollution," concludes Kumaran.